Forget Popularity - Influence Is the Key - Bonnie Kintzer

In today39s crossplatform market we all strive to understand the consumer mindset We do this so that we may better inspire engage and compel people with our brands wherever they are Therefore getting a handle on quotinfluencequot across platforms has become a huge focus for marketers The problem is that influence is often confused with quotpopularityquot And almost every crossmedia measurement and monitoring tool we use at our companies stands to further confuse the issue Focusing on popularity is simply wrong It39s a trivial measure that means nothing to our marketing effortsInfluence is far more about the passion behind an individual39s message than how many people they know and even how connected they are online If you truly believe that a product is right for you and that it works and deliver benefit then you genuinely want to influence the buying habits of your friends If you feel that you got a great deal on a product you want your circle of friends to benefit from that deal That39s influence at workAs you look at the data out of any number of available systems or tools there may be people who have far more followers relative to their peers but are they authentic committed and persistent with the messages they send This distinction is why deeper analysis is so important Does the person39s message get pushed out even further every time this influencer projects something of meaning into his or her social graph Passion resonance and velocity are key components to active influence And that39s what marketers wantMarketers need to pay attention to whom they are targeting and the tendencies and extended reach of that influencer so that future messages get into the right hands where they can be shared in an authentic way that works for the brand and more importantly for the consumer You39ve got to know the difference between watching popularity and watching influence amp8211 and you39ve got to have the right tools to do something with what you learnA recent piece in PaidContent discussing the work in quotThe Rise of Digital Influencequot a report out by the Altimeter Group Delved into this issue and the market confusion that exists It looked specifically at companies like Klout PeerIndex Cred and others peddling quotinfluence softwarequot amp8211 and how brands are using their dataquotEarly in our research we learned that the definition of influence was elusive or in some cases downright incorrect But we can tell you this amp8212 influence is not popularity and popularity is not influence It39s so much more than thatamp8230After spending a lot of time with brand managers agency professionals and connected consumers it was clear that people focused on individuals39 scores Brands sought out people with high scores Users pursued ways to increase their scores Services built programs that rewarded those with high scores But very little went into gaining a better understanding of what the number actually meant for brands and consumers alikeThrough very public experimentation brands are beginning to learn that scores do not matter as much as the context of relationships Consumers are learning that gaming scores or being part of branded marketing activity without purpose may negatively affect their status onlineSince these scores are imprecise brands need to take responsibility for translating these numbers into insights By not clearly defining their social influence goals businesses have been wasting time resources and squandering opportunities to build important relationshipsquotThis piece suggests that the difference between influence and popularity is dawning on brands amp8211 and that they are looking less at what are essentially popularity rankings of social consumers Let39s hope so That brands and consumers have both tended to focus on quotscoresquot creates confusion and distracts us from real patterns of active usable influence Focusing on popularity alone yields nothing and will lead to unnecessary levels of reiteration In short it is trivial and it wastes our time and resourcesAnd it is worth noting when it comes to doing this at scale with women amp8211 a group that takes its own influence through messaging reviewing sharing and curating incredibly seriously a brand can39t afford to watch and leverage the wrong women Popular chatter will do nothing for your brand but legitimate propagating influence will Find and understand those women Focusing there is where the good work is to be done as marketersBonnie Kintzer is Chief Executive Officer of Womenamp8217s Marketing Inc the authority on how women consume media Womenamp8217s Marketing Inc services more than 300 clients in the beauty fashion and health space by delivering the best integrated advertising solutions in digital print and outofhome Bonnie has built a distinguished career in the media world with a strong focus on revenue creation and reengineering Bonnie can be reached at bkintzerwomensmarketingcomRead all Bonnie39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at The W FactorCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Forget Popularity - Influence Is the Key - Bonnie Kintzer

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Bonnie Kintzer

The Ad Council, Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Amazon Announce “The Mind Set” to Support Mental Health - Ad Council InSites

More Videos:

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Forget Popularity - Influence Is the Key - Bonnie Kintzer

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Bonnie Kintzer

The Ad Council, Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Amazon Announce “The Mind Set” to Support Mental Health - Ad Council InSites

The payment was successful

Cookies